2020 CX-3 Loud Bang Then Burning Rubber Smell

[BrentXrs]

Wife called me while driving home on the highway today. Her description to me was it felt like she was rear ended and then immediately had a burnt rubber smell inside the car. The car still drove perfectly fine and she made it home and by the time she got home the burnt rubber smell was gone.

Looked over all the suspension components, nothing off there. Looked at the belts and while they are probably due for replacement due to age anyways neither had snapped. Looked over all pulleys with the engine off and then on. No frozen pulleys, no bad bearings either. AC clutch spins freely by hand when the engine is off. No blown fuses, no lights on the dash.

Took it for a quick test drive myself and the car seems perfectly fine. Any insights to what might have happened or could be a potential culprit?

 

[rick3478]

Wife called me while driving home on the highway today. Her description to me was it felt like she was rear ended and then immediately had a burnt rubber smell inside the car. The car still drove perfectly fine and she made it home and by the time she got home the burnt rubber smell was gone.

Looked over all the suspension components, nothing off there. Looked at the belts and while they are probably due for replacement due to age anyways neither had snapped. Looked over all pulleys with the engine off and then on. No frozen pulleys, no bad bearings either. AC clutch spins freely by hand when the engine is off. No blown fuses, no lights on the dash.

Took it for a quick test drive myself and the car seems perfectly fine. Any insights to what might have happened or could be a potential culprit?

Don't know what vehicle you have, so I'll just launch into a couple things from personal experience, may or may not be relevant.

1) Might have picked up a hitchhiker, cat rat bird or piece of debris rubbed against tire then got spit out.
2) Any missing wheelwell parts that might have been rubbing? I had a Pinto that spit out the vacuum reservoir canister cover from right front. No way a part that big would fit in or out without removing the wheel, but it did.
3) I've had belt idler wheels freeze up and make a bunch of smoke, then break back loose after red hot and look almost normal. If so, probably won't last long.
4) I had a brake caliper stick, and the burning rubber smell was a wheel bearing seal. Although I didn't notice a bang, there was a piece of one charred brake pad missing. Was on the front in my case, but rear could do the same thing, maybe even parking brake left on.
5) Didn't notice the immobilizer club someone clamped on a rear wheel until it came off at highway speed. Okay I'm joking about that one ( I hope).

Just some random ideas.